Charge Up! Precure - The Movie
by ThePriestess
Summary: Its Charge Up the film! I reloaded the page so completely removed my summary. Will they ever update this website. The Cures go on a camping trip! Only its a haunted forest, oops! This takes place after Charge Up concluded so please read that first!
1. Chapter 1: Let's go camping!

"How's everyone's jet lag?" Rae asked with a smile.

Gogo grumbled. Her trip was considerably shorter than the ones of everyone else, but she didn't much like flying so she'd gotten very little sleep the night before. Now, at their destination, the sun was shining high in the sky, and she wouldn't be able to shut another eye until they had properly set up camp God knows how many hours later. Oh well. The trek would keep her awake, she hoped. Rae grinned and patted her back.

"I slept the whole way, I feel pretty good," Saiko said. She tied her brown hair into a ponytail. Her hair was a lot shorter than a year ago, though it still framed her face in a way that it hid half of it. "I thought I wouldn't be able to, but I just put on some relaxing music and before I knew it I was asleep!" She smiled.

Nana next to her didn't look quite as well rested. "I got a few hours, I think," she said, an involuntary yawn escaping her mid-sentence. Her hair was still short, though it reached past her ears now and was dyed a silvery grey. "I kept drifting off but then I'd fall on Ellie's shoulder and that'd wake me up again for a couple of minutes."

Ellie looked guilty and smiled. "Sorry, I won't sit in the middle on the way back," she said.

She mimicked Saiko and tied her hair up, though she didn't have a particular reason to do so. She just noticed everyone who had long enough hair to tie up had done so, and she didn't want to be left out. She'd ask later what it was for later.

Rae still had her honey-coloured curly locks, as they were part of her image as an idol, and Gogo's hair length didn't appear to have changed much, though she wore her thick black hair in a braid now as opposed to the two small buns she usually had when Clairewood was still isolated. Other than that, everyone looked pretty much exactly like they had a year ago.

Ever since the events in Clairewood had concluded, Rae had sworn they would go on a camping trip together, and here they were, a year later, finally making good on it. It had been a while since they'd seen each other in person, so it was also a bit of a mini reunion. Gogo had moved back to her parents after her exchange year at Clairewood Academy ended, and now lived about eight hours away from Clairewood. Rae lived with Se-jin, her boyfriend, in a country four hours away, which made meetups a little more difficult. It felt like they'd just seen each other yesterday, though. Being in a Pretty Cure team together forged a sort of bond unlike any other. Even if much of that time was spent fighting against the Cures, as was Ellie's case.

Now they were all in a country unfamiliar to them, as chosen by Rae. "We'll be away from any technology," she had explained in their group chat after buying them all tickets without informing them ahead of time, "completely at the mercy of nature. We can set up camp, and make our meals over a campfire, and tell spooky stories at night, and sleep under the stars... It'll be great!" After a stunned silence of a few minutes, Gogo replied with a giant PNG of a chicken.

But here they were, all varying degrees of tired, but all quite excited. "We will take a bus that will take us to the edge of the forest, and we'll walk from there. Lots of people camp there during this time of year, so who knows, we might make some new friends!"  
"I thought this was supposed to be a bonding experience for us," Gogo interjected.

"Maybe we could ask them for help if we can't figure something out, like making a fire, or something," Saiko said. She was happy to hear they wouldn't be alone. She didn't particularly feel like telling the others that she was scared. She was certain they knew that already anyway.

Rae nodded.

"Good point, Saiko! But just in case we can't…" she rummaged in the large rucksack on her back. "I've got this!" She held up a fat little manual with a bright orange cover. It was still wrapped in plastic. "This should tell us anything we might need to know about camping." She turned the book over to study the back. "It says they even have tips to keep bears away from your camp!"

"There's bears?!" Gogo exclaimed.

"We'll be fine," Nana sussed. "If bad comes to worse, we've always got these." She held up her wrist, the Cure Bracelet shining in the light.

"Yeah, if a bear doesn't get to your arm first," Gogo mumbled.

* * *

"Aw, I've got no reception out here," Nana lamented. "I wanted to send my parents some pictures of the forest." They were walking along the side of the road, with Rae in front, looking at a giant paper map that should lead them to the path into the forest.

"That makes it more nature-y!" she shouted back at Nana, who was lingering behind a little with Ellie and Saiko. "Our phones are basically just cameras right now. We've got to get by on our own smarts."

"And the smarts of your little orange book," Gogo added. "Though it might be tough to read if you don't take it out of that plastic."

"I bought it as a precaution, you know, in preparation for the trip," Rae explained. She didn't mention that she bought it at the arrival's section of the airport after landing. "I'm hoping we won't need it and can just get by on our own."

"Have you gone camping a lot?" Gogo asked. It suddenly occurred to her that none of them had asked this rather important question.

Rae froze a little and buried her face in the map. "Y-yeah, when I was a kid I went fishing with my dad and we would sometimes set up camp at the waterside so we could start fishing at the crack of dawn. I actually brought fishing equipment! It's been a while so I'm not sure how to do it anymore… But I'm sure my book has information on it."

Gogo narrowed her eyes.

"How long ago was this?"

"Oh, we're here!" Rae shouted a lot louder than was necessary. She pointed, map in hand, at a small gravel path that lead into the forest.

"Let's follow the path for a bit, and then if we see some place that looks nice we can travel deeper into the forest to set up camp."

"We're going off path?" Saiko said, peeking out from behind Nana's shoulder.

"I'd expect we would," Nana said with a smile. "Doubt anyone who's strolling through the forest would appreciate us blocking the path with our tents."

* * *

They walked on the path for a little while, and Saiko began to feel at ease. Lots of sunlight filtered through the leaves onto the path and the mossy ground, and every now and then they passed people who greeted them with a smile and a nod. The idea of staying overnight in a forest didn't seem so spooky and mysterious anymore.

After a little while they passed a group of hikers, all fitted in walking boots and sturdy jackets, and carrying rucksacks. Rae went up to them and excused herself. "I was wondering if you knew a good place to set up camp," she asked with a smile. A glint of recognition appeared in the eyes of the young man she had addressed, and Saiko wondered if he knew who Rae was. If he did, he didn't mention it, and instead pointed to a brook nearby.

"If you cross that you'll come out on a clearing, right next to a river, it's quite large and there's a huge oak in the middle of it, you can't miss it. It gets lots of sun and it's got an ideal spot for a campfire. You know how to safely make campfires?"

"Yes, of course!" Rae said. She was holding the little orange book in her hands.

The young man gave them some more advice, and then wished them the best and his group went on.

When Nana crossed the brook, she felt a little odd. She couldn't pinpoint what it was she was feeling, except that it felt like something had… Changed. She turned around and looked at the path they had just left, and of course, nothing looked different. "Are you coming?" Ellie called.

Rae and Gogo had hurried on to the clearing, but Saiko stopped when she saw Ellie stopped. "Did you feel it too?" Saiko said carefully. Nana nodded. Ellie looked from her to Nana. "What do you mean?"

"The brook," Saiko said quietly, as if she didn't want the others to overhear. "I felt something strange when I stepped over it."

"Really?" Ellie frowned. She walked back to the brook, stepped over it once, stopped, and stepped over it again. Apparently not satisfied, she did it once more, and then shrugged. "I didn't feel anything."

"Maybe it's animal instinct," Saiko said.

"Or maybe it's just paranoia," Nana proposed. Saiko nodded and they went on to the clearing, but she didn't really believe that. If she had been the only one who'd felt uneasy crossing the brook, then she could believe it was paranoia, but the fact Nana had felt it too made her feel even more uneasy.

"This is harder than building one of those do-it-yourself wardrobes," Gogo complained. She was sticking the plastic skeleton of her tent together, and every time she glanced at the instructions sprawled on the grass in front of her, she looked more frustrated.

"Really? I thought those were supposed to be easy to put together," Nana said, working on her own tent.

"Yes, well, they're not when your trying to hammer one of those wooden pegs into a hole, only to find out you chose the wrong size peg, and then you find out they didn't give you any replacements, and you try to shrug it off and move on but then you get this screw you gotta screw in but its just not sticking, so you turn your screwdriver too hard and the whole damn thing cracks in half because they used cheap-ass fake wood that isn't worth anything which is why you should just get a wardrobe built by an actual carpenter who cares about his work and doesn't make you screw around with flimsy wooden pegs and holes and- SHIT!" Gogo got so worked up that, when she finally managed to stick some semblance of a tent skeleton together, part of it snapped loose and vaulted itself into the river.

"Don't worry, I'll get it," Ellie said as she hurried off to the waterside.

"You're very passionate about Swedish furniture," Nana said after a moment of astonished silence. Gogo saw the humour of all this after the clouds had dissipated from her vision, and laughed.

With some help, they managed to put hers, Nana's and Ellie's tents together. Nana had brought an orange tent big enough for two people, as Saiko didn't want to sleep alone. Gogo's red tent was also on the large side, with a little front entrance that made it look more homely, and a little plastic window in the side. Ellie's was the most simple tent imaginable, one that wouldn't look out of place at a training camp for soldiers. It was a dull green, making it look even more military. It fit one person, and even then it would be a snug fit. Ellie didn't mind, the tent was more for the experience anyway, as she didn't need sleep and physical discomfort wasn't a sensation she was capable of feeling.

Rae felt a rock drop in her stomach as she realised she'd thought she was overly prepared for their trip, only to forget to bring the most essential part: A tent.

Gogo laughed. "That's not very chicken of you."

"At least I didn't go full tsunami about being incapable of building a tent thirty minutes ago," Rae grumbled.

"What does it mean when they say that," Ellie whispered to Nana and Saiko. "That whole 'chicken' and 'tsunami' thing."

Nana shrugged.

"We never bothered to ask, we thought it was some kind of Precure code thing between the two of them," Saiko said, realising now how odd it was they never asked.

"You can have my tent, I don't really need it anyway," Ellie said, smiling.

Rae was still scowling. "No that's okay, I'm sure my feathers will keep me warm."

"Hey, it's alright, we all forget stuff sometimes, don't worry about it. My tent is huge, you can sleep in there if you want to. I didn't bring any spare sleeping bags though," Gogo said. She felt a little guilty about teasing Rae, but she hadn't expected Rae would get so worked up over it.

"Thanks," Rae said. She breathed out a big sigh, trying to relax. She felt incredibly stupid about forgetting the tent, but nobody made a big deal about it, so maybe she was overreacting. "I did bring a sleeping bag, so that's not a problem. I brought three, actually."

"Three?!" Gogo exclaimed. "No wonder you had no space for a tent! Why three?"

Rae turned red. "I thought maybe one of you might forget to bring one, so I brought some spares." She wished her fringe was longer so she could hide her face like Saiko would.

* * *

Rae and Nana busied themselves with the fire, with the aid of Rae's limited memories of her camping trips with her dad and the little orange book, while Gogo, Saiko and Ellie messed around at the river. Saiko was resting her feet in the water, which had gotten sore from all the walking, while Gogo and Ellie tried to catch fish.

Initially Gogo had tried to use Rae's fishing rod, but she didn't have any bait. Rae explained she could use a rake she brought (Gogo had to stop herself from saying something about Rae forgetting the tent but bringing a rake of all things) to get worms to come up from the soil, and she had been in the middle of digging the rake into the ground when Ellie jumped into the river and plunged her hands into the water.

"I saw bears do this in a documentary," she explained with a big grin on her face.

"You have to stand still, and not put your hands into the water until you see a fish," Saiko said from the side of the river overlooking the lake. Her knowledge of bears, or any animal really, extended a bit further than Ellie's single documentary experience.

"Oh, okay!" Ellie said. She took her hands out of the water and stared at it intensely.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to stand on the side of the river?" Gogo asked. She left the rake sticking up out of the mud.

"I don't remember," Saiko said. "You could try it? See who catches a fish first."

Gogo leaned over the clear water streaming by her at high speed. If there were any fish, they'd stand out against the dark brown floor of the river. She hunched down, and stuck out her arms like Ellie did. She was ready.

In the end, neither of them caught anything, though Gogo did end up falling forwards into the river after losing her balance. She'd stared at the same spot for so long her head had started to spin.

Rae and Nana managed to get a fire burning quicker than they had anticipated, which was a relief. Thankfully they were not dependant on Ellie and Gogo's fishing skills for their dinner.

Dinner was simple, consisting mainly of tinned foods, but it tasted good regardless, shared with friends in the open air of the forest.

Less simple were the dishes. Rae had brought three separate collapsible sinks to do the dishes in, and they had to heat a pot of water over the fire first on which Ellie badly burnt her hand (or rather, unable to feel the steep rise in temperature as she held it in the flame, she heated it up until it glowed). She then proceeded to tease Saiko, who had shrieked when Ellie absentmindedly reached out to her, by running after her with her glowing hand outstretched.

"That's not funny!" Saiko said after she'd ran into the lake and submerged herself so only her head stuck out of the water. She was the only one in the group who did not think it was funny.

* * *

"Gather around," Rae said after they had cleared up everything. She sat next to the campfire and pointed a torch at her face.

"You look ridiculous," Gogo laughed. She grabbed a bag of marshmallows and sat down across from Rae. Ellie, Nana and Saiko joined them, albeit Saiko a little hesitantly. Now the sun had gone down the forest did seem a little spooky, and a scary story wouldn't help much.

But she preferred being with her friends over being in the tent by herself. She was decked out in her coat, Nana's coat, two blankets and Ellie's sleeping bag to keep her warm after her plunge in the river.

"Once upon a time," Rae began. "...Okay, I'm going to stop pointing this thing at my face, its hurting my eyes." She put down the torch.

Gogo chuckled. "So you start off with a fairy tale opening and then immediately break character. Great storytelling!" She rummaged in the bag of marshmallows and stuffed three of them in her mouth simultaneously.

Rae ignored her. She cleared her throat and started again.

"On a night, not unlike this one, there was a family. They lived in a forest just like this one. They heard a knock at the door…" It became clear to everyone rather quickly that Rae was making the story up on the spot. It wasn't very good. Both Gogo and Nana had to bite their tongue not to interrupt. Saiko was relieved at how Rae's fumbling made her story anything but scary, and Ellie was very confused.

"The babysitter heard a voice coming from upstairs," Rae continued, the story now having somehow changed setting from the forest house to a suburban street with a babysitter as its main character. "When she went to look, she saw it was HER FRIEND!" Rae screamed. Saiko jumped.

"Oh good," Ellie said, sounding relieved. "I was afraid something bad had happened when her friend went upstairs to check on the children."

"With NO LEGS! CRAWLING DOWN THE STAIRS! OF BLOOD!" Rae continued droning, leaving a dramatic pause after every exclamation. Ellie's eyes widened with every shout.

"That's awful!" she exclaimed. "Who did that to her? Was it the kids?"

Rae paused. "Uh, no, it wasn't the kids. The kids are dead."

Ellie gasped. "Did her friend do that? Oh! Did the friend get in a fight with the kids, and then they cut off her legs, and she killed them, and now she's going to attack the babysitter? She should run!"

"That'd be a better story than whatever this is," Gogo mumbled. The bag of marshmallows was empty.

"N-no it ends after the friend is crawling down the stairs. I guess she gets out? I mean, that'd make sense..." Rae shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe I should've thought a little harder about the ending."

"Allow me!" Gogo piped up. She tossed the bag to the side of her chair and sat up. "This is a story Vilmar told me a billion times when I was a kid. Okay, so there's this guy who works at this pizza place, right, but he's like, a night guard. And he's new to the job…"

Gogo's story wasn't any better than Rae's. It might've had the potential to be scary, but Gogo told it more like an anecdote than an actual story. Ellie wasn't particularly fond of the story because it featured evil robots. "I liked the one about the babysitter in the forest better. That one had a cool battle at least."

"But you made up the battle," Saiko protested quietly.

"We should get some sleep," Rae said, getting up. "We have to get up early tomorrow morning, I want to show you guys how to fish."

Gogo frowned. "You've got enough equipment on you for five people?"

Rae looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Yes, of course I do."

Gogo nodded placidly and echoed: "Of course you do."

As they were all quite exhausted from the trip and setting up camp, and Ellie could shut herself down whenever she wanted, it didn't take long before they were all sound asleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Getting Lost

At one point in the night, when the forest was at it darkest, Ellie's systems turned back on. She shifted a little in her tent, not sure why she got activated, and felt something crammed beside her. _A bear_ , was her first thought, but when she turned around, she saw it was Saiko. Her back was turned to her, and her brown hair was messy from tossing and turning.

"Did you get scared from the stories?" Ellie whispered. Saiko didn't respond. There was absolutely not enough space in the tent for two people, and as such Saiko was half lying over Ellie, but she didn't really mind. Though she didn't understand why Saiko would choose sleeping in a cramped tent with a metal person over sleeping in the roomy, cosy tent Nana had brought, she felt touched by the gesture.

"I will keep you safe," she said to Saiko's back.

She had just put her head down on her pillow again when she heard a muffled voice from outside. Was that Nana? She carefully moved Saiko off her and peeked out of the tent to check. There was no moon, so it was impossible to see anything with the naked eye, but Ellie had a built in night vision that made the lack of moonlight a non-issue.

"Nana?" she called. She heard the voice again, it was clearly coming from the trees a little ways away, across the river, deeper into the forest. She crawled out of the tent and got up. "Are you okay?" She called. She got a response, but it was too far to hear what Nana was saying. Ellie wasn't even sure it _was_ Nana. But who else could it be? The voice lacked Gogo's distinct raspiness, and Rae's voice was more high pitched. She heard something behind her and saw Saiko was now getting out of the tent. She rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"I think Nana wandered into the forest," Ellie said. "Should we wake the others?" Saiko shook her head. Nana was still shouting.

"We should do something, she needs help I think," Ellie said, now trying to peer through the trees ahead of them again. "I'll go, you can stay here if you like." Saiko shook her head and grabbed Ellie's hand. She looked very determined not to stay behind.

Ellie smiled a little. "Okay, let's go check it out together then. Let's go."

And so they went deeper into the forest, carefully crossing the river, Saiko holding tightly onto Ellie's hand.

* * *

Nana was a light sleeper. When she heard a few branches break as someone passed the tent right by her head, she woke up. She was still groggy, but the noise she heard was very distinctly the sound of footsteps. She wondered who got up, though she wasn't too worried about it. Until she heard the footsteps splashing through the river. She sat up. Why would they cross the river? She hurriedly made her way to the entrance of the tent, torch in hand, unzipped it, and stuck her head out. She searched for a sign of life near the river with her torch, and caught a glimpse of someone's back disappearing in the thick of the trees beyond the river. The light of the torch didn't reach further than that. She had recognised the flannel nightshirt the person was wearing; that was Saiko's. Why on earth did Saiko cross the river?

She was just about to call after her when she heard movement behind her. She turned around, and saw it was Saiko who had turned around in her sleeping bag, still very much asleep.

Nana's blood turned to ice in her veins. She clutched the torch like a weapon. What the hell was going on? For a moment she thought of waking Saiko, but she didn't want to scare her.

What if it had been someone else, and they had just been wearing Saiko's shirt? But Saiko was wearing that exact shirt right now, that was plain for Nana to see. And she knew Gogo, Rae and Ellie wore different things. Was she dreaming…?

Why am I sitting here cowering by myself? She suddenly thought. I have superpowers. If anything spooky is going on, I can just transform and take care of it. I'm being silly. She carefully climbed out of the tent in an effort not to wake Saiko. She would cross the river and shine the torch into the forest, and if she didn't see anything, she'd go back. She was the Charge Up team's leader, she had to protect the rest, she told herself.

She put on her sneakers and a sweater, as the night was quite cold. She carefully crossed the river, making sure to stand on the rocks sticking out of the water so she wouldn't get her feet wet. "Saiko?" she called carefully. "Or, uh, anyone?" She shone her light through the trees. She didn't see anything at first, maybe it- wait, what was that? She walked in a little further; she was certain she'd seen Saiko's back once again.

"What the hell are you doing?" She called. "You're not dealing with just anyone, you know," she said out loud, the feeling that whoever she saw not being her friend becoming more and more powerful the further she walked away from the camp. "I'm not a regular person."

She stopped.

She shone around, and saw nothing. She listened, but heard nothing aside from her own breathing and the rustling of her sweater as she moved her arm. She shook her head, _I'm being stupid_. She turned around, ready to walk back to the camp. She walked for a bit, thinking about how maybe she was just being paranoid because of the odd feeling she got when she had crossed that brook earlier in the day. But then she noticed something was off. Shouldn't she have reached the river by now? She'd walked no more than ten steps away from it, she was certain. If anything, she should've seen it right when she turned around. She should've heard it.

But there was no sign there had ever been a river anywhere.

* * *

Gogo had heard all of this. She had trouble falling asleep, having made herself a little sick with the marshmallows she'd eaten at the campfire. She'd heard Ellie calling for Nana, Ellie and Saiko walking past her tent and trudging through the water, then she saw light coming from Nana's tent and heard her get out and saw the light bouncing around until it vanished in the woods. What were they all up to? Maybe the scary stories hadn't been exciting enough and they'd decided to go on a spooky adventure together. Leaving out the bad storytellers was a little harsh, Gogo thought. She couldn't really imagine her friends would do something like that though.

But she couldn't shake her curiosity. After a few minutes, she too got up, put on some warm clothes and went outside. She heard laughter coming from the trees across the river, and saw torch beams dancing through the trees.

"Aw you guys, how could you leave me and Rae out of this!" She crossed the river and ran into the forest, using her phone as a light. That was odd. When she was on the other side of the river, it seemed they had been just across from it in the nearby trees, but now they were clearly further ahead. Gogo followed them, but every step she took, the lights and the laughter seemed to move one step further away, too. Must be the sleep deprivation, Gogo thought, as she continued to follow the lights, deeper into the forest, not assuming anything strange was going on.

* * *

Rae woke up to someone gently shaking her. She woke up to a figure looming over her, short of breath and sobbing.

"Saiko?" Rae said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Everyone is gone," Saiko hiccupped. "I don't know what to do."

Rae looked beside her and saw that Gogo's sleeping bag was indeed empty. She frowned.

"All three of them?" She struggled to find a logical explanation.

"I tried calling Nana, but when she picks up all I hear is just rusting noises, like someone walking through leaves. It freaked me out," Saiko said. She was shaking, and had thrown all caution in the wind, she didn't care if anyone knew she was scared anymore because not being scared now would be plain idiotic.

Rae looked at her own phone in confusion. As expected, she had no signal, but she wasn't sure if she should tell Saiko that. "How about we wait for them here? They're bound to come back to the camp. They probably just went together for security and didn't want to wake us up. And the sun will be up in two hours. We can check if they're still not back by then. But I doubt that!" She quickly added, and she gave Saiko her most reassuring smile.

"Okay," Saiko said. She thought it wouldn't do at all to wait at the tents, but she wasn't keen on going out there. Maybe she was just mindlessly panicking. She supposed she had a tendency to do that.

And so they waited.

"How long have we waited," Saiko asked as some time had passed. Rae looked at her phone, and failed to hide the shock on her face.

"What's wrong?" Saiko asked. She had calmed down a bit in the time they had waited together, but now she was back in full panic mode in the blink of an eye.

"The time…" Rae stuttered. "It's still the same as it was two hours ago. It's been four AM for two hours…"

Before Rae could say anything else, Saiko grabbed her phone and held it over her bracelet. She transformed into Cure Volt.

"We're going to find them now," she said with shaking voice. "I'm not afraid when I'm like this." That wasn't entirely true, if Volt was honest she mostly felt better because she had Rae with her, not because she had superpowers. The human mind worked strangely like that sometimes.

When they stepped out, Rae immediately noticed their surroundings had changed. They were next to a gravel path, surrounded by different trees than the forest was populated with. The path was lit with small lanterns on each side.

"Do we follow them?" Volt asked. She was fumbling with the cat face on her bracelet out of nerves, and accidentally transformed back. Maybe she should wait with transforming until she actually needed it. Hopefully she wouldn't.

"I don't think we have a choice," Rae said gravely.

* * *

"Look, there's light!" Ellie said. She started to run. Nana's voice had stopped a little while ago, and she and Saiko had found themselves completely lost. The sign of life excited her.

As she was running she felt Saiko's hand slip out of hers, but she figured she would catch up once they'd reached the tents. She ran out of the forest, only to find herself at the edge of a town. She frowned. She didn't know there was a town at the edge of the forest. Lights were on everywhere, and the town seemed to be filled with life.

She turned around to the forest and shouted: "Saiko? Do you have a map? I think we made it to a town but I don't know where we are." No answer. What was taking her so long?

Ellie was about to walk back into the forest when she heard a voice behind her.

"Did you come from the forest?" Ellie turned around with a bit of a start, she hadn't heard anyone walk up to her. In front of her was a girl with hair and skin so fair she appeared to lack any pigment. Her eyes were a faint rose colour, and almost seemed to glow. She was dressed in subtle pastels; a blouse and a skirt, and her prim and proper appearance clashed with the rural, cabin strewn town she was standing in front of.

She had a severe expression on her face, but it softened a bit when she saw Ellie's reaction. Her cheeks now flushed a light pink, which unsettled Ellie a little, there was something unnatural about it.

She nodded. "My friend and I went to look for our friend and we sort of… Ended up here," she explained. The girl's expression became apologetic.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't think your friend is here. And I don't think your other friend will be coming out of the forest."

Ellie frowned. "What do you mean?"

The girl stepped a little closer. "That's not a normal forest. It leads people here, and it's got… unconventional methods of doing so." Ellie caught a glimpse of the girl's teeth as she spoke. Her canines seemed unnaturally long and sharp. "That voice you heard wasn't your friend. And the person who was with you wasn't human."

The girl's eyes narrowed.

"But neither are you, are you? Nobody's got glowing eyes like that. And you're very pale."

Ellie scowled. "Says you. I saw your teeth, you can't fool me!"

The smile returned on the girl's face. Her chin was tilted up a little. Ellie noticed how haughty she looked.

"Where am I?" She said, fists balled at her sides. "And don't try anything, my neck is made out of steel and I don't have any blood, plus I could totally take you on if I needed to!"

"No need to get so defensive," the girl replied. "I didn't mean to offend. It's true that I'm not human, but I don't attack every person I see on sight, thank you very much. I've got manners, you know. You just caught my eye because you don't look like any of the others that come trudging out of that forest."

Ellie felt a little silly. She apologised. "I'm a bit on edge. I have no idea where I am, or where my friends are, or how to get back to our camp. Do you know?"

The girl shook her head. "Sorry to say I do not. I don't think anyone does. I could take you to where we usually take people who get lost in the forest, but… I've got an offer that suits you better, I think." She emphasized "you". Ellie didn't like it one bit. The girl might've told her she meant no harm, but something about her felt plainly off. Ellie felt a way she hadn't in a long time, a type of dread that matched how she felt whenever Hera, her surrogate mother back when Clairewood was still isolated, made a snide remark so opposite of her normal calm and kind demeanor. Something about this girl felt _evil_.

When Ellie didn't say anything, the girl continued. "Do you like games? I've been playing this game with a dear..." She hesitated, "...friend, and I could really use more allies. I've practically won already but you know, better safe than sorry."

"I need to get back to my camp, I don't have time for games," Ellie replied. She wondered if the girl would chase her if she made a run for it. When she looked for a way out, she saw someone was walking towards them at a brisk pace.

"You're never going back to that camp," the girl said, her fangs now on full display as she grinned a fake sympathetic smile. But the stranger walking up to them now had Ellie's full attention.

"You here? Again?" The stranger spat, addressing the vampire girl. She rolled her eyes in reply and looked at the stranger, utterly bored.

"It seems you're only here when someone gets stranded from the forest. Stop preying on innocent people, don't you bloodsuckers have a cellar for when you get thirsty?"

The stranger looked even more outlandish than the vampire did. Her skin appeared to be white, though it had a warmer glow to it than the vampire's (and Ellie's own) skin. Her hair was shaved on one side and an unmistakable purple, illuminated by the moonlight. She gnashed her teeth at the vampire, and Ellie saw she too had sharp canines, though they were on her bottom jaw. Her left eye was covered by a large black eyepatch with a peculiar design on it.

What made her stand out the most, however, were the two short horns poking through her hair, and the eye on her forehead, which glared with a fierceness similar to the girl's normal eye.

If she wasn't incapable of doing so, Ellie would have wondered if she were dreaming.

The vampire crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the stranger, which Ellie dubbed "ogre" for lack of a better term at the moment. "I'll have you know that 'bloodsucker' is a slur. And I don't attack everyone on sight," she said through gritted teeth. The ogre shrugged.

"Why are you in the monster village then? I thought you bats thought yourselves superior to us?" The vampire flinched when the ogre called her a bat.

"As you are proving this very moment, we are," she sneered.

It was like Ellie wasn't even there anymore.

"Then get out! She's our guest, not a snack for you to claim. Out!" The ogre hissed at the vampire, in apparent mocking imitation. The vampire looked highly offended.

"You disgust me," she spat. She promptly turned into a bat, one Ellie initially thought was albino but noted to be a light shade of pink after a moment, and flew off.

She stared at it as it flew away.

"Sorry about that," the ogre said. She rubbed her neck and smiled at Ellie.

"I chase them off all the time but they always come back. You came from the forest, yeah?"

Ellie nodded.

The ogre nodded once. "Right. My name's Noor. Nice to meet you." She held out her hand; her fingers were chubby and her nails vaguely claw-like.

* * *

When Gogo finally realised she was lost, and that those lights were not her friends, she had been walking for a solid twenty minutes. This seemed absurd to her now. How had it taken her so long to realise something was off? But now she didn't know how to go back, either. She contemplated sitting down in the leaves and waiting for the sun to come up.

She had turned around at some point, and she assumed she was walking back in the direction of the camp, but nothing looked familiar.

Then she saw a light flickering in the distance. It was close to the forest floor. Did somebody drop their torch? I'll be fine, I'm a Precure, she told herself as she walked toward the light. As she came closer she noticed the forest seemed to be full of litter. She saw a chair, a ripped up sofa, several lamps and even an overturned refrigerator, the door wide open and filled to the brim with leaves. _Who abandons these things in a forest,_ she thought. _Maybe this country has a problem with people dumping their unwanted furniture here or something._

She finally saw the item that was giving off light was a tv-screen. It didn't look that out of place between all the other pieces of furniture, but how on earth could it be turned on…?

Gogo took a closer look. She saw the screen was displaying something dark, it looked like a night vision camera.

Someone was hunched down in front of a bright object. To their right was a sofa and an overturned fridge. All around them were trees and dead leaves.

Gogo took a step back when she realised it. So did the person on the screen. _But who is filming this…?_

She suddenly got a very strong feeling that, under no circumstances, she should turn around. So instead she bolted. She heard something moving behind her, crushing the leaves as it bounded towards her. She tried to transform, but because her palms had grown sweaty with fear she dropped her phone. She swore and kept running.

Eventually she made it out of the forest, onto a broad sand path leading up to a large mansion that stood out like a beacon in the dark night. She ran and ran, never looking back, not even sure if the thing from the forest was still following her, until she made it to the mansion. She hid in the garden, under a rosebush that scratched her up badly but she didn't care, and listened. No sound.

She waited for at least ten minutes until she was absolutely certain the thing hadn't followed her, and then went up to the door of the mansion. Maybe the people here could tell her how to get back to the camp, or if they had seen her friends. She wasn't going to go back now though. Not until the sun came up.

She knocked on the door, and it opened a smidge. "Come in," said a friendly voice, and Gogo felt a little safer. So she went in. The moment she closed the door behind her, the lights turned off. She was almost more annoyed than scared.

* * *

Cure Spark yelled her introductory cry. _That was a little unnecessary considering I'm all alon_ e, Spark thought to herself, though she wasn't sure if she could stop herself if she wanted to. She was still lost, and she'd had enough. She decided flying above the trees to see if she could see the campsite from the sky was worth a try.

She looked up and began to fly. These trees are very tall, she thought to herself, but she kept flying up. When, after five minutes, she still hadn't made it above the trees, she stopped. She could see the sky through the trees; how was it possible she wasn't at the top yet? When she looked back down she let out a cry of frustration. The ground only appeared to be a few meters below her, which by all means should be impossible. What was going on here?

She jumped down to the ground. What now? When she looked around she got another shock. She could see the way out of the forest right in front of her. She saw a road, and fields sprawling out after it. Instinctively she turned the cat face on her gauntlet and de-transformed, just in case she ran into someone when she made it out.

She walked onto the dirt path and looked around. She didn't see anyone at first glance, but she was too relieved she'd made it out of the forest to be upset about that. Maybe if she followed the path for a while she'd find a town, and maybe a door to knock on to ask for help. She wondered what language they spoke here.

After a few minutes she came upon a sign that someone had crudely built and hammered into the ground. "Volta mansion up ahead", it read. Someone had tacked several notes onto the sign. From top to bottom, they read:

You're going to see your friends x J & G

Your friends are Jimmy and Gwen

Don't go there at full moon! x J & G

Lucy this is for you! x J & G

The note informing this Lucy that her friends were Jimmy and Gwen had a crude little drawing on it of two particularly hairy looking figures. Nana wondered who Lucy was that someone had set up such specific instructions for her along this road. And what was this thing about the full moon?

"Oh yeah, they're werewolves," a voice said in Nana's ear. Her heart jumped and she leapt aside a little. A girl, about her height, had been leaning over her shoulder to read the sign post.

"L-Lucy?" Nana stammered. The girl nodded. She had fuzzy blond hair, her fringe was incredibly short and she had the rest of her hair tied up in a ponytail with a white ribbon. She looked friendly enough in her striped salopette and sneakers, but she had dark circles around her eyes, and Nana wasn't sure if it was a trick of the moonlight, but her skin looked green.

"Who are you?" Lucy said. Her voice was high-pitched and innocent.

"My name's Nana," Nana said, "I'm lost. I went camping with my friends in the woods but one of them wandered off and I can't find my way back to camp."

"Oh, that's too bad," Lucy said. She scratched her neck and screwed her eyes up, as if she was trying to think really hard. "That's happened before. People get lost in there sometimes and they end up here."

Nana raised her eyebrows. "Really?" That gave her a bit of hope. If it happened regularly it might mean someone in this town, maybe even Lucy, might know how to get back to the campsite.

"Yeah, I think so," Lucy said with a smile. She looked at the sign again. "Huh, I wonder why I can't go there at a full moon," she mumbled.

Nana suddenly remembered what Lucy said when she first spoke, words she had forgotten in the sudden rush of adrenaline at Lucy's appearance out of nowhere. "Didn't you say they were werewolves?" Whatever that might mean. Maybe it was a game? Either way it didn't really matter.

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Lucy clapped her hands together excitedly. "I was gonna go see my friends! Good thing it's not a full moon. Do you want to come along?"

Nana stared at her for a moment. Had she forgotten what Nana just told her?  
"I'm trying to find my way back to my camp," she said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the forest.

"Oh yeah, you did say something about that didn't you. People come out of the forest sometimes. And then they end up here, just like you."

"Right," Nana said, who was now starting to feel uneasy. "Do you know your way around the forest? Or somewhere I can find a map, maybe?" A map would likely not be of much use since Nana was quite certain the forest had changed shape when she was in there, but she began to think it would be more help than Lucy.

Lucy, as Nana expected, shook her head. "But I bet they might know."

"They?"

Lucy nodded. For a moment Nana got the crude idea Lucy's head might fall off if she kept shaking and nodding as much as she did.

"At the Volta mansion. My friends! Or their mum. She's really nice, she says I could live with them if only they didn't have that problem with the full moon every cycle." She looked at the sign with a fondness like it was one of her friends manifested. Then she looked at Nana again. "They helped me, you know. I felt really lost for a while, but then I met Jimmy and Gwen and now I'm doing a lot better."

Nana looked at the sign again. She now noticed there was another sign with the same information on it not that much further ahead. Lucy clearly had a serious problem with her memory, and Jimmy and Gwen were trying to help her with it, and they'd clearly put some effort into helping her, weird werewolf game be damned. Nana wondered if they were her caretakers.

"Okay, I'll come with you," Nana said. She smiled at Lucy, who returned the smile with a gleaming, impossibly white set of teeth, and it almost looked threatening. Then she closed her mouth and everything was okay again, though Nana took care to keep a safe distance from Lucy's side.

* * *

"Is that a school?" Rae said.

They had come to the end of the lit path, and were now standing in front of a big concrete block of a building. It was three stories high, with a side building in the same drab colour, the front entrance market with pillars and stairs. It looked like a building you would find on an industrial site, with all the charm to match.

"Maybe it looks nicer during the day," Saiko said.

"Do you want to have a look inside?" Rae said. Saiko frowned.

"No, not really. But…" She hesitated. Rae waited, but Saiko didn't finish her sentence. Instead she started walking towards the building.

"But what?" Rae asked, hurrying after her.

"But what if someone wants us to be here?" Rae couldn't see Saiko's face and that made her sound slightly sinister.

"Saiko, could you slow down?" But Saiko didn't listen. Her gaze was fixed on the building.

"Don't you hear them?" She asked.

"You're freaking me out," Rae said, ignoring her question.

"It's coming from inside." And with that Saiko walked up the steps and opened the front door, as if it was little more than routine to her. Before Rae could stop her, the door closed.

She looked at her arm. Her bracelet was still there. She held her phone clutched firmly in one hand. She took a deep breath, and went up the steps. She would get in and drag Saiko out, transformed if necessary, maybe that'd break her out of whatever had gotten into her.

She opened the heavy door and stepped inside. They closed with a loud bang that startled her enough to snap her head around to look at the door as if it'd offended her.

"Close the door carefully, miss! If you do that again I'll have to write you up." The stern, male voice came out of nowhere, and with it came lights and vibrant colours, the murmurs custom to a busy school corridor in the early morning.

"Ugh, that'll be the third time I've been written up this week," Rae thought, and with a roll of her eyes she turned around to look at the teacher who had just scolded her.

Except there was no teacher.

There were no sounds, no colours except for dust and pale blues and greys, and she was alone. The hall was long, and empty. Moonlight filtered through the domed ceiling windows. The school was abandoned. Rae saw Saiko standing at the end of the hall, doing nothing.

"Saiko, let's go!" She called. "This place isn't normal, we shouldn't be here!"

She looked at her wrist instinctively, and suddenly the lights were back and so where the voices. Her arm was empty save for the sleeve of her white uniform blouse. "Class starts in five," she thought absentmindedly.

With a start she ripped her eyes from her arm, and everything went dark again. What on earth was going on here? She wanted to try the doors again, but was afraid to turn around, afraid the disembodied voice would come back.

 _Just run. Run, grab Saiko, and run out of here. It can't get a hold of you if you don't give it enough time._ She wasn't sure what she based that rationale on but she had no choice but to stick to it, she couldn't come up with anything better. She jogged to where Saiko was, afraid to break into a full run, afraid she would be told off again. But a few meters before she reached Saiko, Saiko ran off, around the corner, further into the school. "Stop running, it's not funny!" Rae called.

When Rae rounded the corner, Saiko was gone. But the lights were back, and so were dozens of unfamiliar faces walking the halls.

* * *

Saiko woke up when she felt something hit her in the forehead. Was that chalk? Did I doze off in class? She looked around and saw nobody was paying any mind to her. The teacher was writing years on the board. Everyone had black hair. She caught a glimpse of a girl turning her head back to the blackboard. She felt a little embarrassed, she'd never fallen asleep in class before.

Wait, but wasn't she with Rae? She turned her head to look for her, and with the motion the entire classroom changed. Everyone disappeared, and the classroom became dilapidated, the tables covered in dust and chairs overturned. Had she just imagined the class there? How did she even end up in this room? She didn't remember walking there.

She felt something scuttle against her lap. When she looked down, she instinctively pushed her chair away from the desk. The desk fell over, and hundreds of cockroaches started pouring out of it, their hard carapaces flashing dramatically in the moonlight, the white, more larval ones standing out against the sea of black.

Saiko held her hand out for the one that was running around on her leggings. She wasn't bothered by them in the slightest. Saiko was afraid of other people, but no animal could frighten her, not even a little.

The cockroach climbed into her hand, and she studied it curiously. It was large, and in the darkness it was hard to discern but Saiko thought it might be a Mexican hissing cockroach… But they were in Europe. The roaches here were a lot smaller than this. She looked back to the room and turned over her hand so the roach wouldn't fall off, but the sensations of its tiny feet vanished. When she looked back down, it was gone, as were all the other roaches. Her desk was lying on the floor, an aura of clean linoleum in the dust around it.

Was she hallucinating? She got up and walked to the door. She remembered walking up to the school with Rae. Maybe she was inside?

"Rae?" She called out the door.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around and looked into the kind, black eyes of a girl roughly her age. She had straight black hair just a little past her ears and her eyebrows were hidden by her bangs. A port wine stain discoloured her left cheek and the corner of her mouth.

"Do you wanna grab lunch together?"

A girl behind her caught Saiko's eye. She was staring down at her desk, a single roach scuttling across it. She seemed to feel Saiko's eyes on her, because she looked up. Right when they locked eyes, the school went dark again.

* * *

Gogo rattled the front door, and of course it didn't open. She sighed.

 _Don't immediately assume the worst_ , she told herself. "Power outage?" She asked no one in particular. "Does your door lock automatically?"

She rolled her eyes when she got no answer. Of course. If this was a trap, she'd transform and beat the snot out of them, and then smash in a window, easy as that. She couldn't help but feel scared, it was instinctual, but Gogo knew she wasn't in any true danger.

"You said it was okay to come in, so I'm coming in," she called. Where did they go anyway? Who would open a door and just run off? This really was a trap, wasn't it…?

"I just need some directions and I'll be on my way." Directions to the police station, she had decided. If they couldn't help at least she could stay until the sun came up.

She left the entrance hall and walked into the main room, which looked very extravagant even in the scarce light she had been left with after the power went out. "Oh, there you are," Gogo said when she noticed the figure sitting on the sofa. There was an empty glass sitting in front of the figure, and from what Gogo could discern the figure's clothes were very fancy.

Then she noticed he wasn't moving at all. "Or maybe not," she said to herself. Was that a mannequin? Who would pose a mannequin like that? She really wanted to leave. Maybe she should just smash in a window right now.

She heard a match being lit nearby. She saw a small orange light coming from another room, which flickered and then grew larger. Someone was lighting candles. So the power really did go out.

She made her way over to the room and softly knocked on the door, which was opened just a smidge. "Sorry to inconvenience you," she began. The person lighting the candles looked up, but did not turn. Gogo could see the silhouette of a young woman. It was like she wasn't sure where the sound came from. Gogo pushed the door open a little further, to which it creaked in protest. She saw there was a large bed in the room. The sheets on one side bulged, like something was under them, and she realised that what she at first glance mistook for a pattern on the sheets was in reality a large stain.

The woman turned to face her. Gogo recoiled in horror. The woman's skin looked to be a dark grey in the orange light of the candle, but more disturbingly her head and what Gogo could see of her arms were covered in stitches. A large gash covered her forehead, and another marked her cheek. As before, her reaction was delayed, but when she'd registered Gogo was there, she dropped the candle and bounded at the door. Her face contorted in rage, and she began to scream an angry, offended, guttural scream that sounded nearly inhuman. Gogo backed up and fumbled for her phone. Now was the time for Cure Static.

Then she remembered she'd lost her phone in the forest.


	3. Chapter 3: Out of Old Town

"So what are you, anyway?" Noor asked as they walked to her house. Ellie had to admit it was quite a pleasant walk, there were plenty of lights near the wooden houses they passed, and the sound of the water hitting the shore of the nearby lake was soothing. Here and there she saw people working, loading carts with something she couldn't quite make out, and some kids were playing tag a little up ahead. All of them looked a little different from the humans she was used to, just like Noor, but they seemed friendly enough, even if they had extra arms, extra eyes or even in one case no eyes at all. One person who passed them was covered from head to toe in long, black hair, and stuck up his hand as if to wave. Ellie followed suit when she saw Noor wave back.

"If it's okay to ask," Noor said and she smiled gently. "You look different from the others that've come out of the forest."

"I'm a robot," Ellie said. "Um, like a machine? I'm from Clairewood. I think I'm the only robot like me in the world at the moment, so I don't blame you for not being able to tell right away."

"A robot. Huh." Noor looked very confused. One of her fangs poked over her upper lip as she pulled her mouth to one side as she thought. Ellie had gotten confused and inquisitive responses to her appearance before, but nothing this extreme. Noor looked like she'd never heard of robots before.

"So, like a computer?" She said after a moment.

"Yes, kind of like a computer. But human!" Ellie stretched out her arms a little, as if presenting herself like a rabbit out of a magician's hat. Ta-da! The miraculous talking computer.

"Cool. I feel like I still don't know every species that lives in this country. You learn something new every day," Noor said as she waved at another one-eyed person.

Species? Ellie wasn't aware there were different species of humans. She wanted to check online, but there was no connection out here. It'll have to wait, she decided.

"So, where are we going?" Ellie asked instead.

"My parent's house. Dad knows pretty much everything from here to the next town over, so he might be able to get you back to your camp."

"Does your dad look like you?" Ellie asked. Noor laughed. Ellie wondered if she'd asked something strange.

"My dad's an ogre, my mum's a triclops, so, half, I guess? His skin's grey though, not white like mine."

"I've never met an ogre before," Ellie said. "Or a triclops, for that matter."

"It doesn't happen often that they get together. I'm a bit of an anomaly. But I wear it with pride." Noor stuck out her chest.

"Yeah, I've learned to be proud of who I am too," Ellie said. It might've been one good thing Hera passed down to her, she thought.

"Are your friends robots too?" Noor asked. Ellie shook her head.

"They're regular humans. There's Saiko, and Nana, and Gogo and Rae. I wish I could show them this town, it's so nice! Maybe we should have stayed here instead of the forest."

Noor smiled, but Ellie detected something of sadness in her normal eye.

"Are there any normal humans in your town?"

Noor shook her head. "There used to be. Not in my town, but the town next to it. But… Something happened to it, and now they're gone."

"They left?" Noor shook her head again.

"No, they're still there, but… They're not really human anymore." Noor looked proper sad now, almost apologetic. "I admit I feel kinda bad for them, even if I had nothing to do with it. But me and my dad, we go see them every day. We feed them."

Ellie frowned. "What, like cattle?"

Noor winced. "I suppose that's a way to put it."

* * *

"Here we are!" Lucy said. They stopped in front of a mansion, one unlike Nana had ever seen. It was large, extravagant, and the walls were a luxury white, but it looked like someone with a completely different idea of what mansions should look like built several additions onto it. These additions were big and square with no decorations on it. It looked like someone had mashed two buildings together; a victorian mansion and a bauhaus project from the nineties.

"Why does it look like that?" Nana asked.

"I bet I knew at some point, but I don't remember," Lucy proclaimed proudly. The final signpost stood next to the mailbox, and read:

Hello Lucy! Just shout and we'll come out.

Another note under it read:

Our names are Jimmy and Gwen.

Nana wondered if Lucy still remembered her name. Before she could ask Lucy started shouting. "JIMMY AND GWEN! I AM HERE! IT'S LUCY!" _At least she remembers her own name_ , Nana thought. There was some movement at the front door of the mansion, and two figures came running out.

Nana saw that the drawing hadn't been too far off, Jimmy and Gwen were two truly hairy individuals. They both had wild, light brown hair (or maybe blond? It was hard to tell in the moonlight), Jimmy's brushed carelessly to one side and Gwen's sticking out in whichever direction it wanted. Jimmy's ears were impressively pierced, Nana counted five rings on each one before noticing they were oddly pointed. Gwen's ears were hidden by her mane. Both of them wore leather jackets, though Gwen had hers tied around her waist.

They didn't look green, like Lucy did, instead their cheeks were red and their eyes full of life and excitement.

"You made it!" Gwen said happily.

"I did! Lucy said. "And I brought a friend!"

Nana nodded by way of greeting. The two nodded back.

"I don't remember why I brought her though. Or her name." Lucy looked a little embarrassed.

Neither Gwen nor Jimmy looked surprised by this.

"I'm Nana, I got lost in the forest. I was wondering if maybe you knew your way around here because I honestly have no idea where I am," Nana said. They looked at each other.

"Yeah, that happens sometimes," Gwen said. "People get lost in there and they end up here."

"Lucy said the same," Nana said. She sincerely hoped not everyone was a broken record around here.

Jimmy raised his eyebrows. "You remembered?" Lucy nodded.

"That's good! I'm so glad to hear that," he said, grinning broadly. It looked like he had fangs, but Nana quickly wrote it off as just being a bad case of snaggletooth. Maybe that thing about werewolves was a joke in reference to that, in combination with his wild hair.

"We'll take you to mum," Gwen said. "She might know. She's been here for longer than any of us." They walked back to the mansion.

Inside, Nana learned two things: The Volta family was incredibly messy, everywhere she looked Nana saw scratches on the wall and destroyed drapes and cushions. It looked like a giant cat had gone crazy on any furniture it could get its claws on in desperate need of a scratching post. The pictures on the wall hung askew, and the legs of any table or chair in sight looked like it had been chewed on. It was an odd, organised type of messy. Every piece of furniture stood where you might expect to find it, but nothing was undamaged.

The second thing Nana learned was that Lucy's skin really was green.

She gaped at her. "W-where am I," she stammered. Jimmy grimaced.

"I had a feeling you hadn't caught on. That forest isn't normal."

Nana stared at him wide-eyed, almost accusingly. "I'd noticed that," she said, struggling to keep her composure. She pointed a shaking finger at Lucy. "What happened to her?"

"I'm a zombie!" Lucy exclaimed. "But I'm a nice zombie. Nice to meet you, what's your name?"

Gwen quickly said: "We'll get you back home, I promise," when Nana turned a shade so pale it was almost as unnatural as Lucy's complexion.

"Back already? Oh, who's that?"

A woman walked into the room. She was tall and wore a great flowing gown that looked like it was made out of patchwork quilts. Her dark brown bushy hair nearly reached the floor. She carried herself with much grace, unlike her children. It contrasted strongly with her dress and her environment.

"Mum, she came from the forest," Gwen said.

The woman turned her eyes to Nana, who saw her eyes were a silvery grey colour she'd never seen before. They were sad, but kind.

"Did you come alone," she asked, as if she already knew the answer. Nana shook her head.

"I haven't seen my friends anywhere here. I'm not sure if they actually left the campsite, I feel… I feel like something lured me here," Nana said. She'd calmed down a little despite her alien surroundings; her companions were kind and accommodating and she didn't feel like she had anything to fear now.

"You should go to the old town. Gwen and Jimmy will escort you."  
"Can I come too?" Lucy asked, her face desperate wonder.

The woman smiled. "Of course."

"Good," Lucy said. "Because I really want to."

"Are you sure, mum?" Jimmy asked. "The old town isn't…" He glanced at Nana. "...I'd say it's not the best place for a human."

His mother lifted her chin a little, making her look even more regal.

"If there's any place she'd be able to find her way back through the forest, it's there. And if her friends really are here, they'll be there, too. It'll be easier for them to find their way back when they're together."

Jimmy nodded, as if defeated.

"She can't stay here. She shouldn't. You'll go back home, child, I'm sure of it." She said. She smiled her sad smile at Nana, and it instilled more doubt in Nana than it did confidence that she'd make it back home.

* * *

"That's not funny!" A voice echoed Rae's.

She saw a small group of girls in the middle of the hall. They stood in front of a girl whose long black hair obscured her face. The girl who had spoken had a large red mark on her face. Despite her cry of outrage, she was smirking a little.

Rae walked over to them. Bullying, how childish. So typical of middle schoolers, too, she thought to herself. They clearly needed someone who was older and more mature to show them some manners. She stuck out her chest and brushed her hair off her shoulder with one fluid motion of her arm, but when she blinked the school was empty again, and she was no longer a snooty high schooler about to reprimand some kids.

But she was still there.

The girl with the long black hair that obscured her face was standing there, in the dark corridor, all by herself, in her school uniform, pigeon toed and with her back submissively arched.

Rae froze. She didn't know what to say. And so she said the first thing that came to mind. "Are you real?"

The girls head snapped up in a quick, unnatural motion. She stared at Rae with an utterly bewildered expression on her face. Her face was white, too white, her eyes like two small gleaming buttons.

Then she vanished. Rae wasn't even sure she'd really seen her or not. _Can you purify a ghost,_ she thought to herself. "I don't mean any harm," she whispered shakily. Then she heard a scream from upstairs. She recognised that voice. The ghost all but forgotten, she hurried to the stairs, phone in hand.

* * *

Saiko heard a scream from downstairs. Rae. That was Rae. She transformed almost instantly. She had no idea if Cure powers were any good at whatever was at play here, but she had to try. She stuck out her hand and pointed it at nothing in particular. Maybe she could purify the whole school at once? She shouted the incantation, but nothing happened, not even a spark flew and nothing lit up. "Rae? Are you there?" She called.

She felt very silly, and very alone. Why did she think this would work against a building? Then she heard laughter behind her.

"You look so stupid!" A girly voice said.

"You're a joke!" another said.

Volt turned around, angry and embarrassed, and the school came to life again.

She saw the owners of the voices, a group of girls, one of them the girl who had asked her to lunch, weren't laughing at her, but the long haired girl who had sat at the desk.

 _I don't know what's going on_ , Volt thought, feeling braver now she was transformed, _but maybe I can stop this. If this is a haunting, maybe all it needs is a kind and understanding spirit to help them move on._

"Hey," she said. The girls looked up, utter contempt scrawled on their faces. Volt walked towards them, the clacking of her heels echoing in the empty hallways. "Back off. Leave her alone, she hasn't done anything."

Rage flashed onto the face of the girl with the birthmark. "What do you know about what she's done?" but then her mouth snapped shut and she was silent. The group of girls scuttled away, not unlike the roaches.

"Are you okay," Volt asked the lone girl. She de-transformed.

"It's okay, I'm just like you. I know what it's like when people act like that. But they'll go away eventually, and it'll stop."

The girl looked up. She looked hopeless, the edges of her eyes red from crying. "Th-thank you," she stammered.

"Of course!" Saiko said, nodding. "You're not alone, not anymore."

The girl looked up at her. The hopelessness vanished from her face, and for a moment her expression was unreadable to Saiko.

"Will you be my friend?" The girl asked.

A sudden sense of dread returned to Saiko. She didn't immediately answer.

* * *

The woman might've been slow to react, but she was fast moving, taking strides much larger than Gogo's own, who was full on running in hope to find safety, wherever that might be. She tried to find a door, found a kitchen instead, then in a panic ran up the stairs, which she regretted immediately. She ran into a random room and hid in the first wardrobe she found. It smelled like dust and old clothes, and Gogo worried she might give herself away with a sneeze.

But she didn't hear the woman. Maybe she lost her?

...But now what? She couldn't stay here. The bride of Frankenstein, or whatever she was, was still looking for her. Maybe she would take a moment to respond again like she did when she first saw Gogo, and she could bolt past her and out the front door. But the door was locked. She peered through a crack in the wardrobe. There were some heavy looking chairs in the room. Maybe she could throw one through a window and escape through there. If she wasn't too high up, that could be a solution.

"I'm so, so sorry," a voice said. It sounded close by. It was a man's voice, but it was different from the one she'd heard at the entrance. Was he standing in the room? Gogo leaned against the back of the wardrobe.

"She wasn't always like that. And the trap isn't her fault. That was there when we first came here."

Gogo didn't say anything. She had no reason to trust this disembodied voice over the Bride downstairs.

"I want to help you," the voice said. "Please don't panic. I can distract her for you, and then you can get out. The front door won't open, but there's a door through the cellar next to the kitchen that is unlocked. You can get out through there. The town is at the bottom of the hill, you'll be safe there."

"How will I know you won't murder me once I leave this wardrobe," Gogo muttered. To her horror she heard the Bride trudging up the stairs.

The voice laughed hollowly. "I am little more than a voice at this point. I couldn't harm you if I wanted, which I promise you, I do not. You have to trust me. There she comes!"

The presence Gogo had felt left the room. She heard the Bride's heavy footfalls in the hall now, coming closer. _Why is she so angry with me_ , Gogo thought nervously, _I was invited in, I'm not an intruder_.

Then she heard the voice again, but it was softer now, and more loving. It was little more than a whisper.

"Elsa…" It said. The footsteps stopped. A noise that sounded like several short, sharp inhales reached Gogo's wardrobe.

"Elsa…" The voice said again. A new noise, that sounded like stunted moaning.

Gogo slowly left her wardrobe, careful not to make any noise. She peeked around the corner, and saw the bride was standing a little up ahead. She was standing in the moonlight that shone through one of the large windows, shaking slightly. Gogo couldn't see her eyes, they were obscured by the shadows, but she could see tears glistening on her scarred, deep blue cheeks. She muttered something and wiped at her face with a palm. The movement looked stilted, like she had forgotten how to do it.

For a moment Gogo was mesmerized and felt a lump grow in her own throat, but then she remembered she had no time. To get to the stairs, she had to bolt past the Bride, and without giving it much thought, she did so. The Bride gave her no mind. She fell to her knees and wailed, the presence still around her as she wept.

Gogo had no idea where the cellar was. In her panic to get out, she defaulted to her original plan from the first floor, grabbed a chair from the living room and smashed it through one of the windows. "I'm sorry," she muttered as she ran out of the building. She ran out of the garden, ran and ran and kept running without looking back, until she saw the lights of a town. _He said the town was safe_ , she thought, exhausted.

* * *

"Who have we here!" A large man, with large horns and an even larger toothy grin looked at Ellie as she followed Noor into the garden of her house.

"Her name's Ellie, she came from the forest. She's a robot," Noor explained.

"Is she now," her dad said. He was busy loading a cart full of stuff Ellie had never seen before. It looked veiny and glistened in the moonlight. Another monster who was helping him pulled a tarp over it, and the weird stuff was gone from sight.

"My friends are there and I'd like to go back," Ellie explained. "But I got lost and I don't know my way to the campsite. Also I think there's a weird creature in the forest that pretended to be my friend."

"Oh yeah," Noor's dad said. He straightened himself. "That thing. It likes to be in groups. If you're ever in doubt again, just ask it a question. It can't speak." He said it with an ease Ellie felt was misplaced.

"Do you know how she can go back to her camp?" Noor asked. "Because some of the old town people, they came from the forest, right?"

Her dad nodded. "If you walk back in and you know where you're going, you should find it no problem," he said. "If you focus on being lost, you end up lost. It's a funny place, that forest."

Noor smiled at Ellie. "I'll walk with you, if you want. Take you to your campsite and I'll go back." But her dad shook his head. "It's not gonna work if you do that. She can't be with anyone from here. Because we belong here, so the forest won't let any of us through."

"Oh," Noor said. She sounded a little offended.

"Well, in any case, I'll walk you to old town. It's time for feeding anyway, isn't it dad?" He nodded. "We'll send you off, girl." He grinned again. Ellie saw Noor got her underbite from her father.

* * *

Nana, Lucy, Gwen and Jimmy were on their way to old town. Gwen asked Lucy questions to jog her memory. She knew the answer to about half of them, and seemed very disappointed when she couldn't remember.

"She wasn't always like that," Jimmy said to Nana in a low voice.

"When we first met her she was more lucid. She didn't remember how she ended up in old town but she knew her name and she remembered us, and the way to our house. But it's been deteriorating fast lately."

Nana looked at Lucy's dancing ponytail in front of her. "Is it… Because she's a zombie?"

"We think so. The others, they were always mindless. Well, they didn't use to be back in the day, but there wasn't a progression, you know, like with Lucy. We're hoping that if we keep practicing she'll stay self aware, but…" Jimmy looked at the road in front of him. "I shouldn't burden you with this. And we'll get her back to normal, I know it."

But he didn't sound convinced. Out of respect Nana decided not to press the issue.

"Here we are, old town," Gwen proclaimed. Old town looked like a regular suburban town, except the light were off everywhere and figures were shambling through the streets aimlessly. "Do not get too close to them," Gwen said without offering any explanation as to why. Nana figured she didn't need one.

"The forest is over there. If you walk in and think of your camp you should make it back," Jimmy said. "If not, we'll wait for you here. But it's best if you don't think of us while you walk. I think the ones who do…" He looked at the shambling figures. "They end up back here."

"We're not sure if that's how it works," Gwen said. "But that's what mum says." Nana wondered why Jimmy had looked so disappointed when his mum said to take her to the forest.

"I don't know if I can go back yet," Nana said. "I saw my friend walk into the forest, and I think she might still be here."

"We can wait!" Lucy said happily, and she sat down on the ground. "There is no hurry. Time doesn't pass here. See, I remembered that!"

"Any human who comes through the forest ends up in old town eventually," Gwen said. "I suppose there's no harm in waiting a little."

* * *

Saiko looked at the girl, still uncertain. Then she smiled. "I… Of c-"

"Saiko!" A hand fell on her shoulder and ripped her out of the pact and the lit hall. She turned around and saw Rae. She instantly hugged her, glad to have found a familiar, and very much alive, face.

"How did you get up here?" Rae said.

"I don't know," Saiko answered into her jumper. Rae tugged at her, as if to pull her along.

Saiko looked up, and saw Rae's eyes were fixed in horror on a spot in front of them.

The girl was still there. The desperation had returned to her face, her eyes were wide and her mouth contorted into a frown.

Saiko opened her mouth to say something, but before she could the girls entire demeanor changed. Her face warped into an expression of rage and became so deformed with lines she barely looked human. Her hair flew around her like a black aura, like she was submerged in water, and Saiko wasn't sure when she started, but she was screaming.

Rae pulled on her arm and they bounded down the stairs so fast that Saiko tripped, but Rae dragged her along so she couldn't fall. She got to her feet before long and together they ran out the front door.

They flew out, as if pushed, and landed in the sand. The doors shut loudly behind them. They could still hear the girl scream and got up as fast as their legs would allow them.

They ran, still clutching each other's arm, until the school was well out of sight, and they found themselves on a path that led to a town. Exhausted, they started walking. "I want to go home," Saiko wheezed. "I want to go home right now."

* * *

"Look, it's them! It's the monsters!" Lucy pointed and Nana turned around. She saw three figures, one of them hauling a large cart covered in tarp. One of the figures had shiny blue eyes.

Nana got up as quickly as she could. No, it couldn't be. "Ellie?" She said.

Ellie looked around. Her eyes grew wide. "Nana! You _are_ here! Oh I'm so happy I found you!"

They hugged, like they hadn't seen each other in years.

"I didn't know you left," Nana said. "I thought it was just Saiko. Have you seen her?"

Ellie shook her head sadly. "I thought she was with me, but it turned out that wasn't her."

Before Nana could ask, Noor interjected. "Is this one of your friends, Ellie? Nice to meet you. I'm Noor!" Nana did her best not to look shocked when she saw the horns on Noor's head, or the third eye in the middle of her forehead that intently stared at her, but she wasn't sure she succeeded. Either way Noor didn't seem to be bothered about it.

"Nana," she introduced herself simply.

"Thank you for the food," Lucy said to Noor's dad. She reached for the tarp, but he stopped her. "Wait just a little moment missy. Until these lost souls have gone back home, at least. Don't want to freak them out." He winked at Nana. She had no idea why he did that, so she smiled awkwardly at him. At least he didn't have an eye on his forehead, she thought.

"You're here! You're actually here! Oh, I'm so happy!" Nana recognised Gogo's voice, even with how exhausted she sounded. "You won't believe what I went through."

"I think we've all got a story," Nana said, though looking at Gogo it looked like she'd gone through something a little more crazy than Nana had.

"There was a blue woman," Gogo began. She looked serious and gestured with her hands as if she was going to say more, but didn't, possibly out of exhaustion.

"Oh, her," Gwen said. "Yeah, better not go near her. She's a mean one."

Gogo didn't have the energy to give a sarcastic reply.

A shriek that sounded vaguely like "Nana" came from nearby. It startled almost everyone, even Noor's father who towered over everyone else.

It was Saiko. She and Rae came hurrying down the road, somehow looking even more tired than Gogo. Saiko was crying. She fell into Nana's arms and blubbered incoherently. Nana stroked her hair and patted her back.

"With a group this big I reckon you got no problem going back at all," Noor's dad said. "The ones who come back are usually alone."

"What happens to the ones who come back?" Ellie asked. Noor's father looked stern.

"I'll tell you if you come back, girl." Ellie could tell she wouldn't get more out of him.

Ellie and Nana said their goodbyes to their new friends, and so did Gogo, Saiko and Rae, though they were in a bit more of a hurry to leave. "If you hold hands you shouldn't lose each other," Noor said. "And if you see that thing again, just don't acknowledge it. It'll go away."

They walked into the forest, Nana in front, Saiko behind her, then Ellie, Gogo and at the end was Rae. They gripped each other's hands so tightly, it hurt, but the pain was reassuring that they were all still there.

When the lights from the town disappeared from vision, Rae began to sing to lift the atmosphere a little bit. The others quickly joined in.

Rae felt someone grab her hand. She looked back and saw it was Saiko, in her pajamas, her hair a mess. She wasn't singing and looked straight ahead. Gogo in front of her squeezed her hand. Rae quickly turned around again and sang a little louder, harmonizing with Saiko's small and shaky voice ahead of her. After a few moments the hand let go.

"I can hear the river!" Nana said excitedly as they sang their second song. They hurried their step a little, and soon they came upon their campsite. A wave of relief washed over them as they went across the river, the water felt as if it was washing a dark aura away from them.

The sky was still dark above them but if you looked at the edge of the sky you saw it was turning a faint pink. Dawn was coming.

They didn't remember going to sleep in their tents, but they woke up again when they heard birds chirping and the sky was a cloudless bright blue above them.

Even though they no longer felt like they were in danger, they packed up immediately. "I'll book a resort nearby, I don't care how much it costs, money isn't an issue," Rae said. They didn't discuss the previous night while they were still in the forest. All of them separately wondered if it had been a dream (except Ellie) and were too afraid to ask.

Especially Gogo had grown doubtful of her experiences, as when she awoke her phone was next to her on her pillow. But she was covered in small scratches, like ones you might get when you hide in a rosebush…

"I hope she'll find peace," Saiko said when she caught a moment alone with Rae at the resort. Rae raised her brows.

"The girl. At the school. The ghost."

"Yes," Rae said. "Me too." She refocused on swimming.

Gogo in the meantime had turned her tale of running from the Bride into a story of grandiose adventure, and she embellished the details a little bit. She remembered the thing she ran from in the forest, something she'd completely blocked out since her encounter with the Bride, and was relieved she'd forgotten when they went back into the forest to make their way back to camp.

Nana and Ellie's stories sounded a lot less nightmarish than everyone else's. Nana kept wondering if it had all been a bizarre shared dream, but then Ellie would remind her that she couldn't dream, so it had to be real. "Well, in any case, I bet they're glad we made it through," Ellie said with a smile. "It seemed they really didn't want us to come back!"

They all agreed that their friendly monster companions had been right.


End file.
